Oh, Oakland Coliseum, we barely knew you.

…or do we?

Justin Verlander saw plenty of that in 2012 and 2013, with back-to-back ALDS Game 5 wins totaling 17 shutout innings, 6 hits, 2 walks and 21 strikeouts. The Tigers also won the American League Central in Oakland in 2011.

For those of you going back a little further, the 1972 ALCS – then a best-of-5 affair – featured Games 1 and 2 in a Mount Davis-less Coliseum, with the home team winning both games before the series moved to Tiger Stadium, earning a thrilling 2-1 victory over Woodie Fryman in Game 5.

(The A’s won the World Series that year in seven games against the Big Red Machine led by Sparky Anderson.)

Sunday’s game in Oakland was the Tigers’ last as A’s owner John Fisher is (finally) moving his team to Las Vegas after spending time in Sacramento. It’s a shame what he’s doing and the fans in Oakland deserve better. Is it too late to sell the team, John?

So after 57 seasons in the Bay Area, the A’s will be gone, which is a shame because the fans there seem to be fun, crazy and knowledgeable. But baseball is a business and I guess you have to chase the money. Enjoy the sun-dried plastic turf in Sacramento for a few years.

Nevertheless, the Tigers finished their last game in Oakland with an easy 9-1 win, moving one step closer to a wild card spot in the playoffs.

It was another day of group effort for the Tigers pitchers, with Beau Brieske making his ninth start and Ty Madden taking the bulk of the innings. Brieske’s previous start was 1 ⅓ innings on Sept. 1 against the Red Sox. Madden was expected to take over later in the game, which he did; it was his third appearance for the Tigers, one of which was a traditional start.

Rookie right-hander JT Ginn — sounds like a good guy to me — was making his third major league start. His numbers at Triple-A Las Vegas didn’t look great, but that’s a tough place (and league) for pitchers, so take his 5.72 ERA with a large dose of skepticism. He was drafted out of Mississippi State in 2021 and started in the Mets’ system, and to be honest, he didn’t have particularly good stats at any level. But his previous appearance against Seattle consisted of six innings with two runs and seven strikeouts, so there could well be something worth examining here.

Brieske lost control in the first inning, managing two walks with one out. But then he struck out Shea Langeliers and Seth Brown and that was the end of Brieske’s day.

The Tigers opened the scoring in the third inning with Trey Sweeney’s blistering solo home run to right field that clocked in at 109 mph off the bat.

Then, with two outs in the inning, Jace Jung hit a double and Riley Greene was hit in the elbow (he’s fine), and a single by Kerry Carpenter brought Jung home and put the Tigers ahead 2-0. They could have scored more, but Tristan Gray at first base made a sensational diving save to stop a hit by Colt Keith for the third out.

Spencer Torkelson opened the fourth with a single, reached second base on a single by Zach McKinstry and scored on a single by Sweeney to left to give the Tigers a 3-0 lead.

Oakland got on the scoreboard in the sixth inning, cutting the lead to 3-1 with a single-double-single combination with one out and leaving runners at the corners with one out. Madden then went for it, striking out Gray with a nasty cutter for the second out, then followed with a beautiful splitter for another sweeping third strike, this time to Max Schuemann.

Madden stayed on for one batter in the seventh inning, allowing a single to Jacob Wilson and giving way to Tyler “Mr. Reliable” Holton, who needed exactly one (1) pitch to force a ground ball to second base that made a double play. That was the book’s end for Madden, who went 5 innings, allowed 5 hits and one run, issued one walk, and had 7 strikeouts – and that’s a pretty good record if you ask me.

The Tigers put runners on the corners with one out in the eighth inning on singles by Torkelson and Sweeney; Jake Rogers swung a swing, but Sweeney slid to second base. Parker Meadows—who else?!—stepped up to bat and hit a double to left-center field, scoring two runs for a 5-1 lead.

The hit parade continued: Matt Vierling hit a double, Riley Greene a single, Kerry Carpenter a double and Colt Keith a single. As Ernie Harwell would have said, “The Tigers are on the ball!” When the dust settled, Detroit had a six-run inning and a 9-1 lead.

In the ninth inning, Sweeney hit an infield single to second base, his fourth hit of the day. He reached base all five times he reached base with a walk; not a bad performance for the rookie. The Tigers ended up with two outs, but Ryan Kreidler hit a bullseye right to the third baseman for the third out.

Kenta Maeda closed things out with two scoreless innings and the win and series clinching were complete. The Tigers return home for a three-game series against the Rockies that begins Tuesday: They are two games over .500 and tied with the Mariners, 3.5 games back of the final wild card spot. There’s still a chance, folks!

Result: Tigers 9, Athletics 1

Bullet points of fun

• How much fun has Parker Meadows been lately? Since his return on August 3rd through Saturday, he has been sensational: At bat, he is hitting .300/.330/.518 with an OPS of .849 and he is running like a gazelle in the outfield and on the bases.
• One statistic that I think is underrated is runs scored. (You can’t win games without scoring runs, after all.) In the 27 games since his return, Meadows has scored 17 runs; that’s a season-long pace of 102 runs, which would be quite an accomplishment.
• This was the Tigers’ last game at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. Their first game there, on May 24, 1968, ended in a 2-2 tie after seven innings – presumably called off due to rain. Earl Wilson started for Detroit, and Bill Freehan and Willie Horton hit back-to-back solo home runs off Catfish Hunter in the second inning, accounting for all of the Tigers’ points.
• Am I the only one, or are there a lot of guys named Spencer in the major leagues these days? Spencer Horowitz, a rookie for the Blue Jays, had a hell of a weekend in Atlanta, including a two-run pinch-hit home run today.
• I heard the National Football League has games this week. They all look fancy! They have uniforms and everything. No word yet on if they’ll be playing next week.
• Happy 99th birthday, Peter Sellers… we would say if he hadn’t died of a heart attack in 1980. Seriously, if you’ve never seen Dr. Strangelovecancel all your plans—trust me, the doctor’s appointment can wait two hours!—and go see the movie.
• But seriously, go see your doctor. Get the thing checked out.